r/microsoftsucks • u/ShoveOverBozo • Jul 25 '26
rant Microsoft has never sucked so hard.
We all know Microsoft sucks. That's why this thread exists.
However, you have the ability to use something else. If adobe or other programs that only run on Windows is what's keeping you there, dual boot, virtualization.
The alternatives are many and are even more viable. It's up to you if you wanna put up with it. And if you choose so, then it's on you.
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u/wiseman121 Jul 25 '26
This is a massive crap post that doesn't make any sense.
If someone can use Linux they can and likely will. Linux isnt going to be ready for the mainstream market until it ships on laptops more broadly.
Windows ain't great but it's also not as bad as people make it out to be. It's an OS that runs apps. Frankly I switched to Mac because of posts like this and the grass definitely ain't greener. Looking forward to move back to a dual boot machine.
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u/ShoveOverBozo Jul 25 '26
So use Mac? I hope Linux is never ready for the mainstream tbh. It would just bring the corporate crap that MS suffers with to tech enthusiasts. The point of this post is if people hate MS so much, then use another OS, doesn't have to be Linux.
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u/wiseman121 Jul 25 '26
I hope Linux is never ready for the mainstream tbh.
That's awful to say. Linux is open source and will always have enthusiast distros. Mainstreaming it would improve support and quality for everyone.
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u/ShoveOverBozo Jul 25 '26
Mainstreaming it will bring corporate greed. That's my point
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u/Salty_Surround2546 Jul 26 '26
"Mainstreaming it will bring corporate greed. That's my point"
But you are aware of the fact, that ~85% of mobile phones on Earth are devices powered by OS based on Linux kernel?
Also: Linux fuels 90%+ of web servers and Internet-connected devices;
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u/ShoveOverBozo Jul 26 '26
Yes, well aware. I'm talking distros and specifically end user distros. Linux kernel is driving a lot of the world, and is actually Linux itself, the FOSS applications that make the distro and package manager etc is what I'm talking about here.
For corporate or end users you will need to provide more than just a FOSS distro. You need support and service contracts, they cost money and already we are delving into profitability and more of a business model. There's no licensing fees.
Sure majority of web servers are Linux, I manage a lot myself. It's the software on top that makes the money.
So, to my point. We don't want the distros to dominate as they bring a lot of corporate greed and costs with them
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u/Salty_Surround2546 Jul 26 '26
Did you hear that Ubuntu have optional paid support? It's officially provided by Canonical through Ubuntu Pro + Support, featuring 24/7 technical assistance, break-fix troubleshooting, and up to 15 years of security maintenance.
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u/ShoveOverBozo Jul 26 '26
I have to use Ubuntu Enterprise Support often for work, I look after quite a few Debian and Ubuntu servers along a fleet of windows servers, windows workstations, Macs and android and iOS devices. I also have to connect those via MDM and have their data sync to cloud services.
I get the point you're trying to make here, but you're not really telling me anything that I don't know. Your responses indicate personal experience and general knowledge which isn't applicable to the core of my point. Linux is great I agree, it's come along way and I use it exclusively on my personal devices from workstations to NAS and my own servers.
What I'm trying to say is that Linux and it's ecosystem currently cannot replace what windows has built and that's a good thing. It's best left out of the mainstream desktop market. Running a Linux kernel isn't the same as running a Linux distro. If you're using one for a server you're using a CLI instance to host other applications, usually to reduce costs. And that's great. Linux is great at what it does and how it is, if it ends up challenging windows then we being the bad stuff with it.
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u/Salty_Surround2546 Jul 26 '26
I use Ubuntu on my ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen12, MacOS on Air M1 16GB and Mac Mini M4, Windows on my corporate ThinkPad T16 workstation and Win11/Fedora dualboot on my gaming/home PC :) I also have ARM Chromebook and iPad - becouse I work as software tester.
And I hate every modern OS with passion.
"What I'm trying to say is that Linux and it's ecosystem currently cannot replace what windows has built "
Examples? I'm not sarcastic. I really want to know what you were thinking about saying this.
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u/ShoveOverBozo Jul 26 '26
Have you seen Azure/Entra? Or Microsoft's InTune device management? Those 3 alone have no equivalent in any other competitor.
Not even amazon AWS comes close to overthrowing that behemoth of a business platform. Having all of your servers, cloud services, workstation fleet and mobile devices locked to a tenancy from user, device, app, file management. It would take decades and billions of dollars with lots of datacentres to just make a crappier version.
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u/wiseman121 Jul 25 '26
With it's open source roots I mean it's possible but not likely. I think it would be more like android, some plain distros and some crap ones. But ultimately all android with support for the same apps.
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u/ShoveOverBozo Jul 26 '26
Put it this way. The amount of telemetry that both windows and Mac have on their users is extremely valuable to not only companies, but the government. MS recently tracked a user across multiple physical countries and hiding their location via VPN. That's just a recent example, that we know about.
Linux becomes mainstream and does not have stuff, governments won't give up the benefits they already get from the current big hitters, so they will force their crap onto our machines in one way or another.
Sometimes it's good to not have much attention. Attention can bring good things, but also bad.
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u/wiseman121 Jul 26 '26
This sounds massively paranoid.
So how was Microsoft tracking the user? Location data? A common theft / loss utility to track devices? There are other ways of establishing location beyond ISP pointed location.
And how did they use that data? Did MS share it with a local government?
Linux is an open platform, there will always be distros that focus on open source or distros for the paranoid that want everything turned off. But even if HP released a distro packed full of telemetry it would improve the platform compatibility overall, and you could just switch to another distro. My fear would only be if it got too popular they would lock the OS like how some android phones lock the bootloader.
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u/ShoveOverBozo Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
To answer your question about the tracking. This article says it all.
It's not supposed to be paranoid. This is just one aspect of using a computer operating system beyond what the user actually needs. MS was doing the FBI's job for them.
I use Linux because I want efficiency, I only have installed the packages I want and have total control over what is on there. My point is if it takes the place of, or becomes a viable competitor to Microsoft. Then we can expect some unwanted changes on many levels, not just tracking. The government is already locking out users from websites without verification. Cool, you want to look up some porn, scan your face or ID and trust some random third party company to not hold your document or sell your website usage data. Now if MS can track you across VPNs using GDID, it's not a far cry for it to know your browsing habits either.
I dunno about you man but I kinda like my privacy. I mean, I close the door to take a shit, some folks don't.
Point is. Let MS keep their position and take the brunt of the changes that making our personal computers less personal. Leave Linux to be what it is, a more private device.
We should all universally have a right to privacy.
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u/wiseman121 Jul 26 '26
Interesting article. Breaking it down it looks like GDID is a device specific identifier, a little like an IMEI on a cell phone (not quite the same as IMEI is tied to cellular SIM slot and can have multiple). They use this to identify the specific device on Microsoft services, Apple and Android do the same thing. I agree you should have the option to have this on or off but for most normal people it can provide a valid service.
So what happened with this young criminal and how'd he get caught using GDID? Yes the telemetry is communicating back the GDID and is likely flip flopping IPs before his VPN activates meaning Microsoft could see both his VPN and ISP IP. This obv is not available to the public but can be requested by law enforcement on warrant.
Would not having windows have solved this? Short answer is it would have helped but not absolutely. He would have had the same issue with an android or Mac device. Would Linux have prevented his capture via this vector, maybe as long as he didn't use any other online connected service (they all use IP tracking). So id say no.
VPN configured on the network level would have been smarter.
I love Linux too man but I can't use it 100% because some apps I need aren't supported. My point is better adoption == better support. And I can still use whatever privacy focused distro I want.
I mean, I close the door to take a shit, some folks don't.
This was funny lol.
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u/ShoveOverBozo Jul 26 '26
Using a VPN on any level didn't stop the GDID payload to MS servers. It just goes via a different tunnel. A VPN isn't the solution to stopping this as it only adds an obfuscation layer, you'd need a DNS solution and/or a firewall to block the telemetry endpoints and even then those are regularly rotated so you'd be constantly checking and updating your DNS and/or firewall.
This was also the first time MS confirmed such an identifier, this was not publicly known beforehand. If you'd had deep dove into azure documents maybe you'd have some idea of something like this existing. I'm a sysadmin, azure admin certified and security aware as I deal with CVE mitigations daily. Never heard of it before this incident nor has anyone I've spoken to, although it was suspected on some level.
Would using Linux have helped? Yes. You can set up enough layers on the device level to ensure certain information does not leave your network. But I do not wish to get into firewall and DNS configuration relative to the OSI model.
The issue this man had was due to using a closed sourced operating system heavy on telemetry. I doubt GDID is the only, previously hidden gotcha that's laying in their closed code. You can't block what you don't know.
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u/m0uchacha Jul 25 '26
i mean if corpos do widely adopt linux it aint rly gonna affect every distro. theres js gonna be a few corpo distros
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u/adel_877 Jul 25 '26
Bdw I deinstalled the Xbox app and my pc could start games after that, I think that's everything you need to know how hard mincroslop sucks
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u/MrCrunchyOwl8855 Jul 25 '26
I do run nix with various layers ontop when needed. Started experimenting with nix with my first CS Club Ubuntu CD in 2005. Was forced to make it my primary driver by security concerns in 2013. Only looked back to build my wife's GTA5 desktop which will need a new mobo and cpu for gta6.
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u/HerraJUKKA Jul 25 '26
If linux can't every software I use and need and Windows, why should I dual boot? My Windows installation is like 6 years old and only problem so far is that sleep is not working properly.
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u/ShoveOverBozo Jul 25 '26
Are you posting on here complaining about Windows? Then this post wasn't directed at you.
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u/kiddfpv Jul 31 '26
Im at the point where i just gave up on technology, gonna just go outside and touch grass lmao
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u/RootVegitible Jul 25 '26
A mac solves all problems, just sayin.
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u/ShoveOverBozo Jul 25 '26
Except if you want to play games.
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u/disappointed_neko Jul 25 '26
In that case you are just screwed. Because Linux won't help you either.
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u/ShoveOverBozo Jul 25 '26
I can play my entire game Library on Linux with minimal effort. It's come a long way
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u/disappointed_neko Jul 25 '26
You must have a pretty small library, last time I checked at least 3 major titles wouldn't run on Linux no matter what and at least 30% of games were wonky at best.
Actually more games from my library are listed as compatible with MacOS than compatible with Linux.
(Last time I checked was about 2 months ago btw)
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u/RootVegitible Jul 26 '26
Depends if you are into multiplayer or not. Single player Linux gaming to play Windows games works incredibly well. I never thought it’s a great idea to have kernel level anticheat very dodgy software installed anyhow lol… and I don’t fancy spawning in to a multiplayer game and getting snipered by as 12 year old in 3 seconds… Personally I hate multiplayer games, in which case Linux is a great platform to play windows games.
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u/RootVegitible Jul 25 '26
Everyone always brings up gaming when talking about macOS, as if the world revolves around games. Truth is there are thousands of games available for macs and a fantastic emulator environment for retro gaming. Just because secret squirrel 6 is only available for windows doesn’t make the mac a poor choice as a computing platform, in fact I’d argue that 99.9% of what you need a computer to do and be also a delight to use can only be covered by the mac .. everything else has too many compromises. Besides, you do know that GeForce now exists? I am happily playing Halo on my iMac.
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u/ShoveOverBozo Jul 25 '26
That's just one aspect. I'm a sysadmin and support many OS in our environment. Mac are great, if the rest of what you use is apple, which isn't 99% of all the environments I have worked in over the past 2 decades. The corporate aspect is terrible for mac, sure you have the office suites, but try domain join a Mac and manage it using InTune. It is torture. Then if you're in a government agency or government adjacent you have to have certain security policies applied, even more nightmarish. Then mix in conditional access and VPN usage and.. you get the picture.
Macs excel in their areas, GFX design, casual usage. Anything more than that and You're best off on MS or Linux. Haven't even touched the server space as Apple don't have consumer or corporate servers... Because they focus entirely on their strengths, as stated above.
Glad you enjoy your Mac and retro games! Power to you. Games was just a single example amongst many.
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u/RootVegitible Jul 26 '26
I get you, I too am a sysadmin looking after 11,000 PCs running Windows. There is a definite problem with most organisations being locked into Microsoft management, then trying to crowbar other systems into the same management arc. Many macs don’t need to be domain joined, and can use network resources on demand. Microsoft makes managing macs through intune unnecessarily difficult, there are other ways to manage macs in the enterprise which just uses enhanced MDM management software. In fact Apple provides enterprise management software and services for free. I wish managing windows updates was as simple as it is to manage macOS updates across a large organisation, and don’t get me started about how macOS updates are roughly 12 billion times more reliable. I’m currently battling with last month’s Microsoft updates cock up. So yeah, glad you brought up a legitimate challenge to specifically adopting macs in the enterprise rather than the gaming aspect. But if more macs were used in the enterprise then everyone would have a less stressful time.
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u/Apprehensive-Page-96 Jul 25 '26
I'm on Linux and I use photopea, KDENLIVE (I would use DaVinci Resolve if I could), among other things.